Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) to Salmon P. Chase re: argument against accepting the negro as an equal

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC07680 Author/Creator: Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) Place Written: Stmr. Russia, Branford Harbor Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 6 May 1865 Pagination: 4 p. 25 x 19.8 cm Order a Copy

"I am not yet prepared to receive the Negro on terms of political Equality for the reason that it will arouse passions and predjudices of the North, which...might rekindle the war whose fires are now dying out and by skillful management may be kept down."

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